European Research Council focuses on youth

CFotis Kafatos, chair of the ERC's ruling Scientific Council.

The European Research Council set out its draft programme for 2007, confirming that its first grants will be targeted at young researchers with between two and eight years' postdoctoral experience.

As the only pan-European body funding basic research the council confirmed also that while the grants will be awarded to the institutions where the researchers are based, institutions will have to guarantee that they will not interfere in how grant holders disburse the money. And the institutions will receive only 20 per cent of the overhead costs

The ERC repeated its commitment not to be “hostage to the conventional wisdom” but to award initial grants worth a combined €300 million to the best young researchers.

“The fundamental principle for all ERC activities is that of stimulating investigator initiated frontier research across all fields of research, on the basis of excellence,” says the Work Programme for 2007, published last week.

The ERC argues that awarding its grants solely on merit it will add value to other funding schemes, such as national research funding bodies and the European Commission’s 7th framework programme.

The ERC claims it will also generate structural improvements in the research system of Europe.

By funding young researchers, the ERC aims to help institutions to maintain their research capacity in the future, and, by setting pan European quality benchmarks, put institutions in a better position to judge their research performance.

The initial focus on giving large grants to younger researchers will also help to give an overall view of the availability of top talent across Europe in the leading and emerging fields of science.

The ERC says its grants will also encourage more interchange between European institutes, as researchers from different foundations will be brought together to carry out ERC-funded research.

The ERC, run by its 22-strong Scientific Council, which will have complete jurisdiction over strategy and over the types of research that are funded, and will be the guarantor of scientific quality.

Once the Starting Independent Researcher Grants scheme is under way, the ERC plans to launch Advanced Investigator Grants, for which older researchers will be eligible.

The decision to award grants to younger researchers is based on a widely accepted view that Europe offers insufficient opportunities for the young to develop independent careers and make the transition from working under a supervisor to being independent research leaders in their own right.

This structural problem leads to a dramatic waste of research talent in Europe. It limits or delays the emergence of the next-generation of researchers, who bring new ideas and energy, and it encourages highly talented researchers at an early stage of their career to seek advancement elsewhere, either in other professions or as researchers outside Europe.

ERC Starting Independent Researcher Grants will be between €100,000 and €400,000 a year (in increments of €50,000) for up to 5 years.

Investigators can be of any age, nationality and country of residence, but they must have been awarded they first PhD more than 2 and less than 8 years before the deadline of the call for proposals.